lemons – Page 4 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-10: Spinach Salad

Adam Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 15, 2017October 4, 202012-11-08 dinner, 4-92 week, appetizers, bacon, chopped, creamy, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, favorites, fried, garnish, gluten-free, Hutton house, inexpensive, julienned, lemons, lunch, mayonnaise, mushrooms, pan-fried, party food, pork, radishes, revisited, roach motel apt, salads, side dish, sliced, sour cream, spinach, vegetables

The card for 2-10: Spinach Salad is great because it has notes and reviews from the attempts of two other chefs I really admire, Jamie and her mother. From the date of the original note, I can deduce that Jamie’s mom made this recipe almost 25 years ago. She gives a succinct review, “Very Good, Very Easy.” Jamie’s equally positive review of her attempt at making this recipe 9 years back is encouraging. Making this salad for dinner one night after work is a super easy task and I agree with the previous reviews written on the card.

Simply Delicious helps you learn in so many different ways. Not only do I get a recipe for a salad, I get some history about the main ingredient: SPINACH!

Editor’s note: I made this as part of a “fancy dinner” in my first apartment, a year or two after college. I was so happy to have a kitchen and table to call my own, I invited some friends over, busted out a few Simply Delicious recipes, and threw a “fancy” dinner party, complete with table settings and after-dinner coffee.

16-54: Lemony Cottage Cheese Pie

Adam Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 5, 2017November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, baked goods, breakfast, butter, cheese, chopped, cottage cheese, cream cheese, creamy, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, filling, flute, granulated sugar, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, kneaded, lemons, melted, nuts, pie crust, pies, springform pan, stiff peaks, tart pan, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

Whenever I think of lemons, I can’t help but think of Lemongrab from Adventure Time, my favorite, lemon-insipred, animated character. From my research, there are two other major characters who are lemon-themed, Lemon Meringue from “doll commercial hidden in a cartoon” Strawberry Short Cake and Honey Lemon, one of the main characters from Big Hero 6, a 3D animated feature film released by Disney in 2014 . I haven’t had a chance to check this movie out yet, but if it ever pops up on Netflix, I’d watch it. Now that my rant about cartoon characters is complete, enjoy this entry about 16-54: Lemony Cottage Cheese Pie, a really weird lemony pie. 🍋

Serving this pie on top of a tapestry featuring a creepy little girl must somehow enhance the flavor of this otherwise weird lemony pie. The background tapestry is probably the most interesting and tasteful part of the entire photograph.

17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 23, 2016September 21, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking pan, baking powder, bars, butter, casserole, cheese, cheesecake, chilled, citrus, coconut, college, cream cheese, creamy, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, filling, flaked, food coloring, frosting, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, holiday baking, icing, lemon juice, lemons, lukewarm, melted, party food, pie crust, powdered sugar, revisited, salt, snacks, tart, vegetarian, XMAS 16, zested

17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars were the second of my holiday baking batches this year (XMAS 16), and one that I’ve baked in the past, given my rather bold notes. I think I was on a cheesecake kick, and thought these would be easier than making an actual cake. “BAD DO NOT MAKE” doesn’t exactly bode well for a recipe–why make it again?

Here’s why: sometimes it’s important to try again, even when the first experience wasn’t exactly a positive one. The first time I made these lemon bars was my junior year of college, so about 10-12 years ago. I had just moved into my first off-campus apartment with my friend, and we had a full kitchen, something I hadn’t had access to for a few years while living away from home in the dorms.

I remember making these in that kitchen (yes, I dragged these books with me all the way out to Colorado and back) and struggling with this recipe. Out of that frustration (and failure) came the note. I’ve learned a lot since then (culinarily and otherwise), so I think it’s time to figure out if it was the recipe or it was me.

6-29: Stuffed Turkey

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses December 8, 2016June 18, 2020all-purpose flour, American, basted, black pepper, bread crumbs, breasts, brushed, butter, carved, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chopped, cornbread, cubed, deglazed, diced, dinner, dried herbs, drumsticks, egg-free, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, giblets, gravy, half-and-half, herbs and spices, lemons, meat thermometer, melted, paprika, party food, roasted, roasting pan, rubbed, sage, salt, sautéed, side dish, skewered, sliced, soy sauce, stuffed, stuffing, tamari, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, thighs, thyme, toothpicks, trussed, turkey, twine, untested, vegetables, wings, yellow onions

This recipe, 6-29: Stuffed Turkey, is the WHOLE reason I originally decided to take on the challenge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year (TGV 2016)–when else was I going to get a chance to use the actual Thanksgiving recipe but on the holiday itself? I have cooked a Thanksgiving dinner before, but not in my own house, and not planned/shopped/organized for by myself. It was a fun challenge, and I have this card and project to thank for it.

Of course I made this recipe the day of Thanksgiving (Thursday 11/24), and it includes not only the turkey, but traditional stuffing and gravy as well. I cooked this in the afternoon, after making 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls and 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket in the oven that morning.

This year’s Thanksgiving was at least 2 weeks ago by the time you’re reading this, but I hope that if you had one this year it was a nice one, and that if you’re reading this sometime in the future preparing for the current year’s feast, that yours is nice as well. Mine was lovely despite what’s been a tumultuous year, and this recipe was definitely a big part of making my first solo Thanksgiving successful. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read even just a bit of what I’ve written, and thanks for participating in my project, even just for this brief moment.

I’ve been working on this project for just under 3 years now, and I’ve got at least that long to go to attempt to finish it–thanks for giving me a reason to keep this project alive, an outlet for writing, a focus for creative energy, art to share with my family and friends, and a priceless set of memories and experiences tied to a set of stinky old cookbooks that have always meant a lot to me, and mean even more now. Thank you.

1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 2, 2016December 31, 2019American, appetizers, Cajun, celery, chili sauce, chilled, cocktail, cooked shrimp, crab, dairy-free, dill, dressing, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, herbs and spices, hors d'oeuvres, iceberg lettuce, lemon juice, lemons, liquor, lunch, New Orleans, parsley, party food, peeled, salads, seafood, shellfish, shredded, shrimp, sliced, snacks, spicy, Tabasco sauce, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, untested, vodka

I’m counting 1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana as the fourth dish I made of this year’s 7-recipe Thanksgiving cooking marathon (TGV 2016) , but its components actually spanned a few days (and a few cooks). This was one of three appetizers I made for my Thanksgiving dinner–the others being a crudité & hummus platter and 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket.

My mom was always big on the idea of “shrimp cocktail” as being necessary for Thanksgiving dinner appetizers (it was always part of her family’s holiday dinner when she was growing up), so in order to honor that idea, I chose this recipe.

As I mentioned above, I’m counting this as the fourth dish I made–it spanned Wed. 11/23 and Thu. 11/24 as different components had varying levels of make-in-advance-ability. My sous chef made the dressing and prepped shrimp the first night, while I assembled the dish itself right before serving the next day.

6-20: Rosemary Chicken

Adam Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses October 30, 2016October 15, 2020bone-in, chicken, dairy-free, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, gluten-free, herb-roasted, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lemons, olive oil, roasted, rosemary, salt, untested

6-20: Rosemary Chicken is another “Easy” level recipe, my favorite kind of recipe from Simply Delicious. This isn’t my usual method to prepare chicken, but it is fun to try something new every once in a while. 😜

The editors of Simply Delicious are sometimes off on their estimate of cooking time. 45 minutes isn’t nearly long enough to bake a chicken at the temperature they recommend on this card. I found this out the hard way. 🍗

9-27: West Indian Meat Casserole

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses October 11, 2016October 20, 2020almonds, apples, bananas, beef, beef bouillon, beef broth, blanched, boiled, canola oil, Caribbean, casserole, chili powder, chopped, cloves, crushed tomatoes, dairy-free, diced, dinner, dried herbs, Dutch oven, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, ground beef, ground meat, herbs and spices, Indian, lemons, lunch, paprika, peeled, plantains, red bell peppers, salt, sautéed, thyme, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, West Indian, yellow onions

If you had told me as a kid that I would eat meat and bananas together in a dish, I would have called you, “crazy”! Some cuckoo chef over at Simply Delicious is playing a weird joke on people with 9-27: West Indian Meat Casserole, but this dish is rated mostly edible. Jamie wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. 🍌

I don’t really see how this dish is festive. It also isn’t very attractive, at least, not in the way I prepared it.

3-11: Chicken Rice Soup

Adam Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters September 22, 2016October 4, 2020appetizers, boiled, bone-in, chicken, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, dairy-free, deboned, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, long-grain, lunch, mint, rice, salt, sliced, soups, strained, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

I can’t count how many different chicken soups I’ve had in my life, but 3-11: Chicken Rice Soup is the latest version I’ve made from Simply Delicious. For this dish, I picked my own lemons and fresh mint from the garden so this dish had extra meaning to me. 🍋🌿